The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [83]
James has Miko wait outside with the horse again while he goes inside to see about getting a room. The door opens onto the common room, and off to the side sits a long bar running half the length of the wall behind it. To James’ surprise and amusement, he finds a rather large, fat man standing on top of the bar, trying to coax a yellow cat down out of the rafters.
“Come on kitty, kitty,” the man on the bar says to the cat. He has a bowl in his right hand and is passing it under the cat as if to entice it down for a treat.
“Ahem,” James clears his throat to make his presence known.
Startled, the fat man drops the bowl. It hits the edge of the counter and falls to the floor on the far side. The sound of shattering pottery tells its fate. The man turns with face turning red in embarrassment to find James standing there. Giving the cat a last look of exasperation, the portly man climbs down off the bar and comes over.
“How may I help you today?” he asks as he approaches.
Looking up at the cat, James says, “I was about to ask you that same question.”
“Oh, that damn cat,” he curses. “She always gets up there and then expects me to get her back down. Sometimes I think she does it just to annoy me.”
“Cats are that way I understand,” James replies sympathetically and slightly amused.
“Yes, well, I’ll deal with her later. How can I help you?” he asks again.
“I was hoping you might have a room available for me and my companion,” he explains. “Thelonius down the street said this would be a good place to stay.”
“He did, did he?” the innkeeper asks. “I do have a couple of rooms available. How long were you planning on staying?”
“Perhaps a couple days, maybe longer,” James tells him. “I also need a stall for my horse.”
“It’ll be two silvers a night for a room on the bottom,” he says, “an additional two coppers for one on the second floor. For your horse, another three coppers a day and that includes food and exercise.”
Amazed at how expensive it is, he says, “I’ll take the one on the second floor.” Pulling out his pouch, he removes seven silvers and hands them over. “I’ll take the room for three days and let you know if I need to stay longer.”
The man takes the money and walks with James over to the bar where he opens a cupboard on the wall behind it. Inside are rows of hooks with room keys. He pulls out one of the keys and hands it to James, “You are in seventeen, top of the stairs and fourth on the left.”
Taking the key, James says, “Thank you,” and then walks over to the door. Before leaving, he glances back to find the man starting to climb back up on the bar to once again attempt coaxing his cat down out of the rafters.
Chuckling to himself, he goes outside and tells Miko they’ll be staying here for a few days. Untying the horse, he and Miko head around back to the stables.
A large, muscular man is back by the stable shoeing a horse. When he sees them walking toward him he says, “Just a minute.” He takes another shoe nail and hammers it into the hoof of the horse, securing the shoe in place. The man then puts down the hammer and inspects the shoe, making sure it’s on secure and even. When he’s satisfied with it, he lets the hoof go and turns toward James and Miko.
“Yeah?” he asks them in a surly tone. “Something I can help you with?”
James shows him the room key and says, “Just need a stall for my horse.”
“Got one,” he says as he gestures over his shoulder, “second from the front.” As if that ended the conversation, he turns back to the horse he had been shoeing. Taking the other fore hoof and a file from off a nearby worktable, he begins evening out the hoof’s rough edges.
James leads his horse into the stable and finds the stall, second from the front. It’s a clean and roomy stall with shelves lining the rear wall. It takes them little time to get the horse settled in. Once the horse has been properly taken care of, they grab